Magento-electric pulse generating devices play a role, e.g., as switches, flowmeters, tachometers, automotive ignition distributors, and proximity sensors in a variety of commercial and industrial applications. Among such devices are those based on an effect as disclosed, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,118, "Method of Manufacturing Bistable Magnetic Device", issued July 1, 1975 to J. R. Wiegand; disclosed there is a magnetic wire having a cylindrical, magnetically hard outer region and a magnetically soft core portion. Such a wire may be in one of two stable magnetic states, one in which magnetization in outer and inner portions is parallel, and the other in which such magnetizations are antiparallel. Switching between states is triggered by a suitable change in an ambient magnetic field, resulting in a large change of magnetic flux in the wire, and inducing a voltage pulse in a pickup coil.
An alternate approach is disclosed in papers by K. Mohri et al., "Sensitive Magnetic Sensors Using Amorphous Weigand-type Ribbons", IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. MAG-17, No. 6, November 1981, pp, 3370-3372, and "Sensitive Bistable Magnetic Sensors Using Twisted Amorphous Magnetostricture Ribbons Due to Matteucci Effect", Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 53, No. 11, pp. 8386-8388. There, elastically twisted ribbons are used which are made of an amorphous magnetostrictive alloy and which produce a voltage between the ends of the ribbon.